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pearloz's review against another edition
2.0
Good riddance. It's all about style for me and I didn't like the style these stories were written in. It felt like ironing, but not in an editorial sort of way, in a tedious kind of way. "Susan wrote a book. Or rather, she worked on stories that comprised a book. I read the book. When I read the stories that comprised Susan's book, I felt used. Or rather, I felt abused. Abused by Susan. Or rather, I felt like my time was stolen. I hate my father. I'm a whore."
I feel pretty disappointed, I expected more from a bookriot.com recommendation. Ah well.
I feel pretty disappointed, I expected more from a bookriot.com recommendation. Ah well.
emilybergonzi's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Great read, stories can be hard to get through emotionally. Heartbreaking at times, but very much worth the read.
jennyshank's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.10/dont-ask-her-to-hike
REVIEW - From the June 10, 2013 High Country News issue
San Francisco-based writer Susan Steinberg experiments with form and structure as she examines the roles men and women play in her arresting story collection, Spectacle. "The woman," she writes, "is supposed to know the subtle difference between being a woman and performing one." An unnamed woman narrates these 13 first-person stories, revisiting certain touchstones -- her relationships with her brother and divorced parents, especially her father, an addict; the memory of a friend's death in an airplane accident; the shifting balance of power between men and women in relationships, especially in tense situations.
In the story "Superstar," for example, the narrator accidentally scrapes a man's car with her own. He screams at her and belittles her, "calling (her) certain names reserved for women," until another man intervenes, taking over the fight, recasting her as "some sweet thing" he must protect.
Steinberg captures charged incidents in sharp and nervy prose, questioning common euphemisms. When the narrator must decide whether to discontinue life support for her father, she writes bluntly: "There are some who say I did not kill my father. Not technically they mean."
The doctor who advises her "did not, of course, use the word kill. He had another word, a series of words, a more technical way of wording." The woman feels pressured by the doctor and by her brother to make this decision over the phone at 4 a.m. In this story and throughout the collection, the narrator stands outside the heat of the moment and speaks from a cool, rational remove. When the doctor sighs, frustrated with her hesitancy, Steinberg writes, "The sigh applies pressure to the woman. Then the woman is supposed to give them what they want."
She takes this emotional distance even further in the story "Universe," in which the narrator's unborn child dies, and Steinberg writes, "One could now drink heavily. One could now eat shark." Sometimes this technique makes the narrator seem callous, but in most of the stories, this flinty stance toward personal loss simply underscores its horror.
Steinberg applies the same intense analysis to lighter moments, as when the narrator agrees to hike with various boyfriends who love nature, as she does not. Steinberg writes, "I'd hiked all day through mud; I was scraped all over, dirty all over; I wasn't averse to dirt; I was averse to something else: like the pressure of having to pretend I cared about a bird, a stone, a star."
Spectacle is a penetrating collection, and although the narrator is sometimes powerless, the author never is. Steinberg masterfully controls language to convey her stark insights about unbalanced relationships, in which one person always has the upper hand over another.
REVIEW - From the June 10, 2013 High Country News issue
San Francisco-based writer Susan Steinberg experiments with form and structure as she examines the roles men and women play in her arresting story collection, Spectacle. "The woman," she writes, "is supposed to know the subtle difference between being a woman and performing one." An unnamed woman narrates these 13 first-person stories, revisiting certain touchstones -- her relationships with her brother and divorced parents, especially her father, an addict; the memory of a friend's death in an airplane accident; the shifting balance of power between men and women in relationships, especially in tense situations.
In the story "Superstar," for example, the narrator accidentally scrapes a man's car with her own. He screams at her and belittles her, "calling (her) certain names reserved for women," until another man intervenes, taking over the fight, recasting her as "some sweet thing" he must protect.
Steinberg captures charged incidents in sharp and nervy prose, questioning common euphemisms. When the narrator must decide whether to discontinue life support for her father, she writes bluntly: "There are some who say I did not kill my father. Not technically they mean."
The doctor who advises her "did not, of course, use the word kill. He had another word, a series of words, a more technical way of wording." The woman feels pressured by the doctor and by her brother to make this decision over the phone at 4 a.m. In this story and throughout the collection, the narrator stands outside the heat of the moment and speaks from a cool, rational remove. When the doctor sighs, frustrated with her hesitancy, Steinberg writes, "The sigh applies pressure to the woman. Then the woman is supposed to give them what they want."
She takes this emotional distance even further in the story "Universe," in which the narrator's unborn child dies, and Steinberg writes, "One could now drink heavily. One could now eat shark." Sometimes this technique makes the narrator seem callous, but in most of the stories, this flinty stance toward personal loss simply underscores its horror.
Steinberg applies the same intense analysis to lighter moments, as when the narrator agrees to hike with various boyfriends who love nature, as she does not. Steinberg writes, "I'd hiked all day through mud; I was scraped all over, dirty all over; I wasn't averse to dirt; I was averse to something else: like the pressure of having to pretend I cared about a bird, a stone, a star."
Spectacle is a penetrating collection, and although the narrator is sometimes powerless, the author never is. Steinberg masterfully controls language to convey her stark insights about unbalanced relationships, in which one person always has the upper hand over another.
femaled10nysus's review
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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